State Ex Rel. General Dynamics Corp. v. Luten

566 S.W.2d 452, 1978 Mo. LEXIS 374
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedApril 28, 1978
Docket60100
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 566 S.W.2d 452 (State Ex Rel. General Dynamics Corp. v. Luten) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. General Dynamics Corp. v. Luten, 566 S.W.2d 452, 1978 Mo. LEXIS 374 (Mo. 1978).

Opinion

RENDLEN, Judge.

This is prohibition. We are called upon to decide if respondent has improperly enjoined relator from prosecuting its pending action against McDonnell Douglas Corporation in the Superior Court of San Diego County, California, and if so, whether prohibition is the appropriate remedy.

General Dynamics Corporation’s (General Dynamics) two count California suit, filed March 1, 1976, was amended March 23 to bring in four additional claims involving interpretation of and performance under the parties’ August 7, 1968, contract. McDonnell Douglas Corporation (McDonnell Douglas) moved to stay that proceeding alleging as a bar, the presence of a “first filed” 1 Missouri suit with issues overlapping those in the California case, particularly those raised by the March 23 amendment. The Superior Court of San Diego County, though apprised of McDonnell’s “first” suit, denied the motion to stay, holding:

“[t]he determinative factors guiding the Court are as follows: convenience of witnesses; location of documentation; interpretation of California law; unavailability of compulsory process in the State of Missouri; and the enforceability and conclusiveness of the Judgment.”

Shunning appeal or other review of that ruling, McDonnell Douglas filed a motion, ancillary to its suit on the contract in St. Louis County, asking that court to temporarily restrain 2 General Dynamics from prosecuting the California action. In the proceedings that followed (faulted by relator as lacking due process), respondent permanently enjoined General Dynamics, who now seeks prohibition to prevent enforcement of that injunction.

Before examining the issues, it should be noted that nothing filed in this court demonstrates that testimony was presented in the May 21, 1976, hearing on General Dynamics’ motion to stay and McDonnell Douglas’ motion for temporary injunction. Though reference is made in the court’s order, entered eventually on January 4, 1977, to “evidence” presented by the parties, no record of such “evidence” was preserved. Relator states categorically no testimony was given nor a court reporter present at the “so-called hearing.” The *454 court’s minute entry of May 21, 1976, does not reflect the presentation of evidence and in respondent’s affidavit made February 10, 1977, more than eight months later, 3 he states that at the May 21, 1976, hearing “. . .1 heard argument from counsel for both McDonnell Douglas Corporation and General Dynamics Corporation . . (Emphasis ours.) No mention is made of evidence offered or received. Later in the affidavit, however, respondent added this conclusory statement: “[ajfter consideration of the motions, the evidence, the briefs and the arguments of counsel for both parties, on January 4, 1977, I denied General Dynamics Corporation’s motion to dismiss or stay and entered the permanent injunction enjoining General Dynamics Corporation from prosecuting those issues it had added by amendment in the San Diego lawsuit.” (Emphasis ours.) We are not told the nature of such “evidence” and because no record of that or the other proceedings have been filed here, the facts must be gleaned from the pleadings, numerous affidavits, written suggestions submitted in the various trial proceedings contained in a 135 page “Joint Appendix” filed by the parties. In addition, respondent has submitted supplemental and second supplemental appendices totaling 242 pages which contain additional memoranda, pleadings, interrogatories, notices and related materials.

The parties to the underlying contract of August 7, 1968, are Convair and Douglas, the California divisions of General Dynamics and McDonnell Douglas, respectively. By the contract’s terms, Convair was to manufacture fuselages for DC-10 aircraft in San Diego to be shipped to Douglas’ Long Beach plant for assembly in their finished aircraft. This contract was the fruit of extensive negotiations conducted in Long Beach by executives of Douglas and Convair, which climaxed with the execution of that agreement in California. Art. 24 thereof provides:

“This Agreement and purchase orders issued hereunder shall constitute the complete and exclusive statement of the entire agreement between the parties hereto. This Agreement and such purchase orders shall be construed and performance thereof shall be determined according to the laws of the State of California.

Among many substantial contract disputes that have arisen is one described as “the weight/price issue” relating to the industry-wide practice among aerospace companies of calculating the price of an airplane fuselage from an estimate of its weight. Quite early Convair and Douglas disagreed as to estimated weights to be used in those price calculations. In the summer and fall of 1975, the companies opened negotiations concerning the option price of future “ship sets” orders beyond the first three hundred to be furnished by Convair. The agreement is a long term requirements’ contract with pricing provided for the first three hundred fuselage “ship sets” but with option pricing arrangements for subsequent “ship sets.” By relator’s briefs we are told that General Dynamics, in support of its motion to stay, detailed for respondent the many contacts of this litigation with California. For example, over four hundred file drawers of documents created by the negotiations and changes of the contract are in California, and fifty-five of the sixty witnesses potentially necessary to a proper resolution of this litigation reside there and are not subject to Missouri service of process. “[T]he DC-10 jetliner has been produced, assembled, and flight tested in California; the contract was negotiated, performed, executed, and amended in California; the outcome of this litigation directly affects thousands of California employees. .” In response, respondent’s brief states that all major decisions concerning the DC-10 production and sales program have required the approval and continuous participation of McDonnell Douglas Corporate Offices in *455 St. Louis. 4 The Chief Executive Officers of both companies reside and maintain their respective offices in St. Louis County.

In September of 1975, Sanford McDonnell, President and Chief Executive Officer of McDonnell Douglas and David Lewis, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of General Dynamics, discussed possible resolution of the contract disputes. Sanford McDonnell, in an affidavit filed here in the parties’ “Joint Appendix”, complained that a number of items of correspondence from McDonnell Douglas to General Dynamics went unanswered during this period. These negotiations were largely unsuccessful and General Dynamics, faced with the possibility of its claim as to the weight/price issue being barred by limitations, prepared to file suit in San Diego. According to the Lewis affidavit of April 22,1976 (also appearing in the parties’ Joint Appendix), “it was necessary to file suit promptly.”

THE FEBRUARY 18, 1976, PHONE CONFERENCE

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